Bowie: A Biography - JFK247

ather partnered with a UK label, Phillips. Its
headquarters in Chicago were the object of rumors
about mob ties. Pitt even found the money to shoot a
promotional clip for the song to add to the Love You
Till Tuesday film. The result is more like Barbarella
(the campy, Roger Vadim–directed science fiction
film also released that year) than Kubrick. It shows
Bowie, looking unnervingly like John Denver in
greasy hair and granny glasses, clad in a silver lamé
space suit (supplied by Lee) and frolicking with two
space babes, played by model Samantha Bond and
production assistant Suzanne Mercer. Director
Malcolm Thomson reportedly wanted the babes to
get it on with Major Tom on camera, but Pitt
objected.
The first time “Bowie and Hutch” performed
“Space Oddity” live at the Marquee they realized that
they were able to captivate the crowd with the
dramatically sung dialogue. Hutchinson would sing
the part of “ground control.” Bowie would answer as
Major Tom. And during the climax, when the “tin can”
floats off into eternity, Bowie would play a small
electronic keyboard device known as a Stylophone,
given to him by Marc Bolan, who also declared
correctly that David had written his first big hit.
“The audiences grew because it was so unusual,”
Hutchinson says. “The small gigs that we did, he
would turn up with that Stylophone. He also had an
ocarina. You blew into it and it made a funny kind of
noise. He didn’t care if it was a joke instrument. He
was quite happy because it was something that